Angel Trains, DB ESG, Stratasys and Printing Portal have
just received “Highly Commended” recognition for a third-place finish out of 20
entries at the annual Railway
Industry Innovation Awards, held in London on 28 June.

The collaboration builds on additive manufacturing to address
the issue of obsolete parts, reduce whole life rolling stock costs and enable
vehicles to remain in passenger service longer. This innovation also has the
added potential to lower costs for train operating companies, as smaller
volumes of parts can now be produced cost-effectively, rather than in mass quantities.

The group has established a process enabling production of components that comply with rail industry standards and are suitable for use in passenger vehicles. The group leverages Stratasys’ Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) additive manufacturing technology and have several successes since the collaboration began less than a year ago. These include:

Re-designing
and 3D printing five railway components, all fully certified for in-service
use.

Agreeing to
trial 30, 3D printed parts with two operators beginning this summer. This is the
first in-service trial of production-ready 3D printed parts in the UK rail
industry.

The partners
have also agreed to a range of R&D work to further push technology
boundaries and speed adoption by the wider industry.

Some comments from our partners:

“This is the beginning of an exciting future in the 3D printing area. AM offers far greater control of the supply chain and has the potential to radically transform the rail manufacturing industry. As one of the largest investors in UK rail, we continue to work hard to ensure that our innovative technology drives industry advances and revolutionises passenger experience. We are collaborating with transport companies from across Europe to help drive this technology and strongly support operators and suppliers in adopting this technology on Angel Trains’ assets.” –Euan Smith, Head of Product Management, Angel Trains

“This has been an exciting project to work on to date. Our role has been in investigating the design, production and finishing of FDM parts, verifying whether the parts comply with rail standards and checking whether they work in the operating environments. We have also optimised the component design of FDM manufacture.” –Martin Stevens, Head of Mechanical Engineering, DB ESG

Founded in 1998, the Railway
Industry Innovation Awards is the longest-standing awards scheme in the
industry. Organised by the 4th Friday Club, these annual awards
celebrate the brightest ideas in the market.

We truly believe this is just the beginning – and
together with our partners – we will drive the widespread adoption of 3D printed
parts across the rail landscape.

To fully explore the impact of 3D printing on the rail
industry, visit our Manufacturing Page for
more details.

Eric Bredin

Eric Bredin currently serves as Vice President of Marketing for the EMEA region at Stratasys.